B I B 



B I B 



!Dr. Gill's collation of all the palTages quoted in tlie Talmud. 

 An Hebrew MS., which once belonged to a fynagogue at 

 [erufalem, was at this time piirchafed by his Britannic ma- 

 iefty ; and our au-thor himfelf, lioping to obtain other trea^ 

 fures from the Ealt, fent to Canton, and had nearly fuc- 

 ceedtd in procjring a MS. from the Jews at Cai-fong-fu, in 

 the province of Honan. But though he failed in China, 

 lie fucceeded i''-i America^and procured a complete Hebrew 

 MS. from a Jew at New York. During the tenth and iaft 

 year of this collation, eight Danifh MSS. w-.re fent to Ox- 

 ford for the author's own examination, as were alfo fix others 

 from Toledo, by Dr. Bayer. Collations of other MSS. 

 were furnilhed, at the fame time, from Silefia, Cologne, 

 Strafburg, Kcnigfburgh, Upfal, Lcyden, and Ireland. The 

 indefatigable author, having thus collected materials for his 

 noble undertaking, an undertaking no Icfs honourable to 

 his country than to himfelf, proceeded to digell the varia- 

 tions, with which he was furnilhed, under their feveral 

 books, chapters, and verfes. During this operation, he 

 formed a plan for a more complete fcrutiny of the btft MSS. 

 through Europe, by fending fome wcll-qualitied perfon to 

 re-examine the MSS. already collated, and to examine the 

 rift in p«5FajfO" of ^rtrrrcr inoment, and where fuccefs fcemed 

 at all probable. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Bruns, a learned 

 German, was felefted for this embaffy ; and he was honoured 

 with letters from the fecretaries of Itate here, to all our foreign 

 ambalfadois, as well as from th-- rulers of the two fyna- 

 gogues in London. Tiie places in which he thus examined 

 MSS., during a tour of three years, were Paris, Louvain, 

 Cologne, Mentz, Worms, Manheim, Nuremburgh, Augf- 

 burgh, Stutgard, Carlfruhe, Straiburgh, Bafle, Zuric, Berne, 

 Geneva, Turin, Catale, VeruUi, Milan, Genua, Leghorn, 

 Sienna, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Cefena, Modena, Reggio, 

 Parma, Mantua, Padua, Venice, Udinc, Goritia, Gradifca, 

 Triefte, Vienna, Drtfden, Leipiic, Erfurt, Jena, Deflau, 

 Berlin, Hamburgli, Helmftadt, CafTcl, .'\mllerdam, Utrecht, 

 Leyden, and the Hague. 



The variations contained in nearly 700 bundles of papers, 

 being at lall digellcd, including the eollettions made by 

 Dr. Bruns ; and the whole, when put together, being cor- 

 refted by the original collations, and then fairly tranfcribtd 

 into 30 folio volumes, the work was put to the prefs in 1773 ; 

 and botli volumes (as ve have already laid), with the geae- 

 ral diflertation, were iiiiillied in July 1780. 



In order to evince the neceffity as well as the utility of this 

 work. Dr. Kennicott has prefcnted us with a furprihng de- 

 tail of teftlmonies, which exhibit the opinions both of the 

 Jews and Chriflians, as to the Hebrew text, from the earlieil 

 times down to the prefent. The Jewiflj tclHmonies are ar- 

 ranged under five dilUnft periods, viz. from the time of 

 Malachi, about 420 years liefore the birth of Chrill, to the 

 commencement of the Chrillian sra ; from Chrill to the year 

 500 after Chrift ; from the year 500 after Clirift to the year 

 1000; from this year to the invention of printing, about 

 1450 ; and from the invention of printing to the year i 780- 

 The firft Jewifh tellimonics arc thofe of Jofephus and Philo, 

 who fpeak of the Greek verfion as perfeftly agreeing with 

 the Hebrew text in their time ; whereas Dr. Kennicott 

 afferts the corruption of the Hebrew text before the time of 

 thefe Jews, and alfo the vei-y great importance of the Greek 

 verfion. For the Pentateuch of this verfion being made 

 about 280 years before Chrift, and the other books being 

 alfo tranflated into Greek about 100 years before Chrift (as 

 is inferred from the prologue to Ecclefiafticus), this verfion 

 mull have had many true readings, where the Hebrew was 

 afterwards corrupted. Although in Pf. xvi. ic. the word 

 for " thy holy one," which is now plural in the text of 



every copy exprefTed maforetically, yet in the Greek verfion 

 it is fingular, which is the cafe in no lefs than 180 copies, 

 agrecablv to the quotations of St. Peter and St. Paul. And 

 becaule the argument of thefe apoftles urged upon the Jews, 

 jull after the refurrcction of Chrift, depends on this word's 

 being truly fingular. Dr. Kennicott confiders this various 

 reading as of greater moment than any other which was ever 

 drawn forth from MSS. He obfcrves, that as the Greek 

 verfion thus h .'ps to prove the Hebrew text corrupted when 

 it (/i/prs from it, fo where the Hebrew text is corrupted, 

 and that verfion agrees, it provt-s the corruption to be older 

 tlian tlie verfion, unlefs the verfion lias fince been aliimilated 

 to the Hebrew. Such very early corruptions occur, as he 

 conceives, in Dent. x. 6. Gtn. xi. 32. and Gen. xxxvi. 

 31, — 43. The third inftance contains 13 verfes, which, not 

 being written by Mofes, were probably inierted from I Chro- 

 nicles,!. 43 — 54- ni fome MS. of Gentlis, into the margin, and 

 thence taken into the text. This interpolation is fo old as to 

 be found in all the vcrfions, and iikewile in the Samaritan text. 

 In the firlt inftance, many words are omitted in the Hebrew 

 text, and in all the verfions, which are prtferved only in the 

 Samaritan text. In the fccond inftance, the number 145 

 is corrupted into 205 in the Hebrew text, and in all the 

 verfions, and it is right only in the Samaritan text. Dr. 

 Kennicott afterwards fpecifies two great corruptions : one, 

 where the Greek verfion has been afhinilated to the Hebrew, 

 by addition ; and another, in which the Syriac verfion has 

 been thus accommodated, by change. The firft relates to 

 20 verfes, probably interpolated in i Sam. xvii. ; and the 

 fecond, to the word for lody altered to the word for ears, 

 in Pfalm xl. 7. ; on which word, body, the argument is 

 grounded, in the icth chapter of the epiftle to the Hebrews: 

 and a very old Syriac MS. in the royal library of Paris, 

 tranflated i '^■n the Hebrew, has preferved the true word 

 for body ; and another has proved, that the Jews have al- 

 tered their ancient copies, wilfully, from the Hebrew text 

 and Greek verfion of Ifaiah, xix. 18, refpefling the temple 

 at Hehopolis ; and alfo from their turning Moles into Ma- 

 nafFcs, in Judges xviii. 30. Many other inftances occur in- 

 the period now under confideration. 



In the interval between the birth of our Saviour and the 

 year 500, Dr. Kennicott remarks, that though the prefent 

 Mafora feparates our tenth commandment into two, agree* 

 able to the divifion now made by the Roman Catholics ; yet 

 the unity of this commandmtnt, as made by Proteilants, is 

 exprefcly confirmed by Philo and Jofephus ; and the Ma- 

 forctic mark of feparation (at Exodus xx. 17.) isabfent from. 

 at leaft 234 Hebrew copies Jofephus is farther cited, as 

 confirming the ancient chronology in the Greek verfion 

 againft that now in the Hebrew text ; and likewife, as hav- 

 ing a number much more credible as to the gold and filver 

 left by David. The fame hifiorian alfo confirms^ the read, 

 ing in the epiftle to the Hebrews, chap. vii. 4. from Genefis 

 xiv. 20. He confirms, too, the Syriac verfion, and the 

 edition of Sixtns, reading four in 2 Sam. xv. 7., and the 

 Vatican MS. reading four in i Sam. xvii. 4. And though 

 the later Jews have taken Daniel out of their prophetical 

 books, yet Jofephus calls him a prophet, in the ftrongeft. 

 terms. It appears further under this period, that the He- 

 brew MSS. differed at the time of the compofition of the 

 Talmud ; and that fome of the true readings may ftill be 

 found in this work. This faft is confirmed by feveral in- 

 ftances, and particularly by Pfalm xvi. 



Under the third period Dr. Kennicott coufiders the fubjeft 

 of the Ker't, which fee. This period alfo includes acoUeiition 

 of 216 variations between the oriental and occidental MSS, 

 Proofs of differences are likewife deduced from the old Jewiih 



books, 



